We are very happy to introduce you to New York City-based screenwriter Christina Tucker.

Christina was born and raised in the suburbs of Southeastern Michigan. She majored in Art History and minored in Classics at New York University, graduating with the Class of 2017. She is currently based in New York City and works as a freelance production assistant and production coordinator.

She recently completed her first short film, The Ghost and the Writer, for which she served as writer, director, and executive producer. (bio from site)

 

Follow Christina:

www.christinamarietucker.com  IG: @xtinatucker

THE INTERVIEW

What are you working on right now?

Punching up a few screenplays, searching for management, trying to make and maintain new freelancing connections, and trying to stay on top of the festival circuit for my short film, The Ghost and The Writer.

What does “inclusivity” mean to you?

Inclusivity, to me, means venturing outside of your immediate friend/family group and seeking talent from other spheres when hiring and putting together teams. Production is, for better or worse, so driven by word-of-mouth, and while this is a logical result of an industry that often demands a great deal of artistic consensus, trust, and understanding, it also leads to a lot of exclusivity and gatekeeping. When graduates of elite film schools only hire their former classmates, for example, you end up with people from similar class, educational, and often racial backgrounds dominating these industries.

I don’t think this comes from any kind of malicious intent, it’s simply easier to work with people one already knows personally. So many people I know hire not based on merit or demographics, but personal relationships, often to the detriment of the end quality of the art and the professionalism of the production itself.

Inclusivity means democratizing the hiring process in all elements of entertainment production, whether in writer’s rooms or below-the-line production work, which leads to more diverse productions, in terms of race, gender, and class.

If someone handed you a million dollars tomorrow, what film would you make?

I would probably film the screenplay I’m currently editing, inspired by the relationship between my sister and I. It explores coming of age, mental health, family bonds, and the pressures of being at a transitional point in one’s young adult life, and I think it could be filmed for cheap. Either that, or I would produce very, very ambitious short based on one of my short screenplays.

How has your career trajectory changed in the last two years?

Two years ago I was just graduating from college, terrified that changing course and abandoning my plan for grad school to pursue freelancing was a choice I would regret. I was so afraid there was no way I could essentially start from scratch, with no film school education and very little production experience, and create a career. I’m now supporting myself working primarily as a production assistant in an industry I’m passionate about, one that inspires me to create. I’ve gained so much more confidence in my choice and so much more motivation in the past two years to keep pushing myself to be better, to continue writing, and to connect with other artists.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing in the world, what would it be?

This might seem frivolous, but I wish we could go back to the dawn of the Internet and have some more caution and foresight about the Internet (including social media, instant communication, etc.) and its impact on society. Sometimes I think it may have done more harm than good to the average person’s psyche.

What is your dream project?

If I could write and/or direct a Western one day, I’d be immensely grateful. I find the genre so fascinating and so full of potential, along with being aesthetically fantastic.

What are steps we can take collectively and/or individually to become more inclusive as an industry?

I wish there was more transparency in terms of hiring, more posting of openings online, less needless gatekeeping by way of agents and managers, easier communication across the board.

I love that things like grants, fellowships, festivals, diversity initiatives, and contests are becoming more and more discussed as a way to allow people without the “right” personal connections to branch out, but I wish, for example, that, on a smaller scale more production companies were more responsive to taking the extra time to make their job openings public. A person’s work should be more important than their connections, and the industry as it stands certainly rewards the latter moreso than the former. To see production companies take more risks on unknown artists, to make hiring practices more public, these kinds of measures would lead to a more level playing field, and would allow for more marginalized voices to find an audience in this industry.

One of the most positive experiences I’ve had was a female director (Catherine Orchard) taking a chance on me earlier in my career. I was a relatively inexperienced freelancer who she didn’t know, and she was under no obligation to take a chance on me or even respond to my emails (early on, very few people did!) but she did, and the experience I’ve gained on her sets was invaluable to my start as a production assistant. That the kind of simple action, just giving someone you don’t know an opportunity to gain experience, that makes a huge difference.

Who, currently working in the industry, inspires you?

Yorgos Lanthimos is definitely an inspiration. He has brought his own unique, strange tone and performance type to films of various genres, and despite working with bigger and bigger budgets has maintained his own recognizable voice.

Paul Thomas Anderson is another inspiration for similar reasons. He’s proven himself able to tackle such varying genres and subject matter, directing actors in some of their best performances.

Name a movie you think everyone should see.

Johnny Handsome (1989), directed by Walter Hill. It has an unreal cast (Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Forest Whitaker, Elizabeth McGovern, and Morgan Freeman) and an unconventional, almost fairytale premise, and some heartbreaking performances, especially Rourke’s. It’s not a very popular movie, but I think it definitely should be.

What would you like to promote? (can be your own project, someone elses, an organization, a cause, a movie, company, brand, whatever)

I’m actively seeking management for screenwriting, but other than that, I don’t have much to promote!